Fan Fiction: Downfall
by Alter Shead
Summary: It finally happened... We lost. Us heroes, lost. All I see is wreckage wherever I go. Darkness took over... But somehow, I have this deep feeling that I had something to do with it!
1. Prologue, Revelation

It was dark. I could feel the intense heat that emerged from afar.

It was hard for me to even open my eyes to the slightest least. There was this cold, slow flowing liquid that kept emerging from the corner of my eyes. I began wondering if it was tears, or blood. Whatever it was, most of my body remained numb. No pain was felt, no temperature seemed alarming enough. It was as if I was dead. Struggling to move my fingers, due to the fact I couldn't move at all, I brushed them over the nearest material I could find. The texture was immediatly identifiable: hard. A few spots seemed plain, just like metal. Others felt bumpy, and flawed around the edges that I could find. God, I just hoped that this state of paralyzing movement wouldn't be permanent.

"God damn it."

The heat became clearer once I finally managed to open my eyes. Apparently, this source of heat was a bright, but small light that emerged from a crack in one of the many gigantic shards of metal and stone. From the little that I could make up in my mind, it seemed that I had been submerged in a heavy pile of rubble.

"Great, fantastic timing..."

The numbness that I had been experiencing just a while ago was now fading away, giving room for the inevitable pain. On second thought, maybe that numbness hadnt really been a bad thing. The unbearable stinging soon came after, as I could now comprehend at what point I was injured. Painfully looking down, I noticed that my clothes had been partially shredded, to point where the many cuts had surpassed the silk itself, and onto my skin, dying mostly my shirt in the familiar, red paint. Cuts, deep wounds, and even sharp pieces of steel were lodged in several parts of my body, and this particularly sharp piece had pierced my left leg from the bottom up, so my limb was stuck between the floor and the fake ceiling.

Closing my eyes for a moment, as to relieve the tension buzzing inside my head, I suddenly shot my eyes open, veins dangeroulsy popping, and then proclaimed.

"NEGATIVE HEAVEN!!" A white light suddenly shot out from me, giving new shadow concepts to my small and tight surroundings. The smoke grew a light, blue tint, as the many obstacles and materials lying around the surface soon began floating in midair, and in the next second, disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind only my fallen body.

"Ugh...!"

Struggling to move, and probably stepping beyond my point of rupture, I managed to sit up supporting my weight with my arms. Ever slowly looking around, I noticed something that I had failed to notice.

Apparently, all this time I had been lying in a big puddle of what appeared to be my own blood. Sighing, I ran my calloused and bloody hands through the fresh and deep wound on my left leg. It was even hard to look at, let alone feel the intense pain that it willingly offered to me. Even for a demon born from the deepest insides of Hell like me, it was hard to watch. Deciding to ignore it, I took a risk and wasted all of my energy left to try and simply stand up.

Surprisingly, it worked.

"Oh dude, now that's what I'm talkin' ab- OH SHIT!" And just like that, I fell down again, landing agreesively on my ass, only adding to my injuries.

There was, however, no surprise to this failure of mine.

Looking around, just realizing I hadn't even taken a few seconds of my time to scan my surroundings, all the images I got were entirely cryptic. This place was like something he had only seen in those post-apocalyptic movies he had watched. Enormous piles of rubble here and there, damaged buildings, a purple sky covered by the darkest clouds possible, and yet, no signs of rain. But I had this hunch that if it ever rained, it would perhaps be acid rain.

*crack*

I swiftly turned around, momentarily forgetting the unbearable pain that jolted through my whole body. Scanning everywhere in sight, from every single pile of rubble, to the multiple craters and the destroyed buildings, I though at first that it had just been my imagination.

*crack*

And yet again. I turned around once again as to find the source of these suspicious sounds. From the corner of my right eye, I could see this moving figure coming at me. Grinning, I rapidly summoned my trusty Heartbreaker: the two handed sword, with a guard of two hearts of each side, and on the center, a broken, black heart. The hilt was long, enough for two hands, but just for the style, I liked to weild it with one hand only. There were two long scripts attached to it, possessing some strange, ancient letters. The same type of letters could be seen on the long, majestic, sharp blade. In what seemed like a flash, I turned around and slashed the incoming stranger.

"You probably never heard of the Bushido Code, ain't I right?" This was my all time favourite. Like many other decent heroes, the smart-ass remarks were something all of my battles always needed to have.

Surprisingly, the creature jumped up, and landed on top of my blade. Finally, in that pause, I took a good look at it.

"What the fuck are you?" That creature wasn't normal. It couldn't be taller than 1'8 ft, at least at first glance, and it possessed only a black hood on, reminiscent of those Organization XIII bastards.

Suddenly, it lunged at me with intense force, revealing a huge mouth from its torso, its awfully sharp teeth craving for the blood drying on my face.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Aware that the creature was running at me on my blade, I did a quick backflip whilst holding on to the Heartbreaker in that same position, sending that dreadful assassin flying against a nearby wall, as it crashed onto it, leaving a few medium-sized cracks on it. While in mid air, I performed a side flip, now facing the recovering monster. I raised by sword high in the air, and slashed the air in the beast's direction in a fast motion.

"AKA TAIHOU!!" The slashed air took form of a big, red colored shock wave, sent against the creature. Against all odds, the bug managed to pull off an amazing flexibility, stretching its legs and avoiding the fateful Aka Giri, which not only left a long fissure from me to the wall, but it also managed to leave the solid wall to lay in dust, as well as opening a few more fissures around.

(A/N: Aka Taihou = Red Cannon)

"Shit, managed to avoid... Where is it?" Busy questioning myself, I failed to notice it coming up from behind me once again. Forcefully, it clenched its teeth deep in my left shoulder, as I gritted my teeth in order not to give it the satisfaction of my scream. But God, that was painful.

"Son of a bitch." I grabbed it by the head, and ripped it out of my skin, breaking a few of its teeth but only prolonging the wounds it left on my flesh. But just like the hungry, blind predator it thought it was, it didn't take a second lying down on the ground, as it came back for another taste. Only this time...

"HEIKAKU GIRI!!!" I shouted, as I swung the Heartbreaker in an horizontal fashion, tearing it half, from its apparent head to the bottom of its torso. Surprinsingly, it fell to the ground, leaving its two halves to quickly rot. The liquid that splashed out of it was the thing that caught my interest.

(Heikaku Giri = Straight Line Slash)

"Green ooze?" I muttered, as I desummoned my Heartbreaker, now holding onto my bleeding, left shoulder. Ripping a piece of shirt, I wrapped it around the deep and disfiguring wound until I could find something or someone to treat it. I sighed.

"Hmm, I still got bitten by that weak bastard... Only shows how much thorn apart I am right now." I said, as I walked through the ruins of that old city. Vast, it was indeed. It had that epic, huge feel to it, like many things had happened there before. It felt very nostalgic, too, like I belonged there, somehow. Suddenly, I shot up another glance around.

"Where exactly am I? What the hell happened before I woke up?"

I looked around once more. Something felt very familiar about these ruins. I didn't know what, and I didn't know why. But something just felt too much of a deja vu. Haven't you people ever been somewhere for the first time in your life, and yet, it felt like you had once been there before? The way you mistook a dream for a memory? Well, to me, it felt just like that, only at least a thousand times stronger.

"Hmm, I wonder if..." Suddenly, I looked up. A wrecked hill far away, but clearly visible managed to answer my doubtd. And in the most unpleasant way, too. It contained a few letters, or at least what was left of it. The word that they were supposed to be making was clear: Hollywood. Which could only mean that these ruins were of none other than...

"... Oh boy!"

... Los Angeles.

* * *

END PROLOGUE


	2. First, The Fallen Ones

"Are you alright, David?"

Came the voice of Ranger, an Author famous for many of his heroic deeds and epic battles against his respective Darkside and Villain, Shade. Turning around, the fellow Author also named David cocked an eyebrow, but soon met his gaze with Ranger's, acknowledging his legitimate presence.

"Yeah, though I'm mostly worried about our friends. This… this power… It was like something I've never seen before… So intense… so bright…so…"

"Impossible?" Ranger attempted to finish David's exclamations, already knowing what his Leader was trying to formulate. Raising his head at the wandering Author in front of him, David slowly nodded.

For even "The One" to be taking this sudden attack into such account, it only meant that whatever situation that they were going to face in the near future was far from simple. Passing one of his many bladed weapons around his cold fingers, Ranger simply sneered and took his attention to the scene around him.

In fact, for what the readers hadn't still been shown, their location in space was none other than the damaged, brown soil that was more than able to give off even the slightest feel of a post-apocalyptic background. Fissures everywhere your field of vision could take you, cracks of unimaginable proportions and piles of gigantically sized rubble one place or another, itself serving at the very moment as a temporary hideout for both of these warriors.

"Do we have any visual contact or at least audio contact with our friends?" David questioned, as he remained there staring at the ground, as he sat by one of the walls of the hideout they had concealed themselves in.

"Unfortunately no, David, our communicators aren't working, we might have been scattered across this entire area. Hell, judging from this much destruction, I'd say its area of effect might have been across more than just one city… so we might have been separated throughout the entire State… I hope I'm wrong, but some of them might already be d-"

"Don't finish that sentence yet, Ranger… We aren't certain of anything right now; let's not get ahead of ourselves…" David stated, at which Ranger could only question if his friend was either trying to control the situation or just reassuring himself.

"Yeah David… sure." Ranger spoke for the last time, before returning his attention to the broken communicators lying on the ground.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps nearing the two of them became more than audible, as David immediately glanced in the respective direction and drew out his ShieldSword, barely at the same time as Ranger took a defensive stance, taking a firm hold of his two bladed weapons.

"Who goes there?" David asked, not giving the strange silhouette stepping in the shadows, walking straight in their direction with an ever so slow rhythm, creating some sort of uneasy feeling on the both of them.

"The Darkness in your heart, David… Ranger… You ignorant traitors… Just like him…" That voice was never impossible to recognize, because it rang like death in the ears of the two members of the SOS Fan Fic Brigade.

"Sephiroth…" Ranger sneered, as the image of the One Winged Angel himself came into view, stepping into the minor light of their hideout, his amazingly long katana reflecting that small speck of gleam that penetrated through one of the fissures of the stone walls that surrounded them.

"Your mouth shouldn't even attempt the pronunciation of my name, you filthy dark being… Nothing but a mere microscopic crack out of the mirror that is Darkness incarnate." Sephiroth commented, before readying his katana and launching a huge shockwave as he sliced the air in a very quick and swift motion.

"Shit!" David muttered, before both he and Ranger moved out of the way just in time, as the shockwave sliced the wall behind them in half, as it fell apart.

Ranger, witnessing the resulting debris falling to the floor, turned to Sephiroth, snarling in anger. "What the hell do you want with us, you fucking freak?" Ranger asked, before running as rapidly as possible in Sephiroth's direction, and lunging his two curved blades into Sephiroth's head. Grinning, Sephiroth side stepped him so fast, it looked like he had phased through Ranger like a ghost would, more accurately, it looked almost as if he had teleported behind him, raising his katana a bit.

"Oblivion…" Sephiroth pronounced as he suddenly lowered his katana, before Ranger, who had remained motionless the entire time, suddenly felt the raging pain of what seemed like a hundred slashes pass through his body, before a sudden force threw him into the ground with such a force that it left him incapacitated, in a newly made crater.

"Sh-Shit… Gaah…" Ranger said, struggling to breath as blood began pouring from the many cuts in his body.

David, without a second thought, launched himself against Sephiroth, as he slashed against Sephiroth, his blow being however blocked by his opponent. The class of their blades made a clinging sound strong enough to create a considerable number of cracks around their stone surroundings, as Sephiroth closed his eyes and smiled in malice.

"Not bad… but not good either…" Sephiroth said, as he applied a more aggressive hold in his katana, blowing David away.

However, as David was in midair, Sephiroth slashed the air in "The One's" direction. Suddenly, the air gust that passed by David felt the same way as Ranger, except Sephiroth twirled around and sent another massive, barrage of slashes, as the burning pain of a hundred cuts passed the second time in a row by David, the force of those two attacks sending him crashing into the wall with violence, as he fell down to the ground.

Ranger, having now gotten to his knees, took a look at Sephiroth.

"Why… are you doing this?" Ranger asked, slowly lifting himself.

"Get down on your knees… I want you to beg for forgiveness." Sephiroth replied, pointing his katana, the Masamune, at Ranger.

"Tche, good luck with that, you bastard!" Ranger sneered back, readying his curved blades to deflect whatever was Sephiroth's next move.

"As if…" Sephiroth muttered, before unleashing another barrage of slashes in the form of a burst of wind.

"You sick bastard…" Ranger said, as he struggled to slice the air in an attempt to break Sephiroth's attack.

However, he wasn't able to block all the slashes, and in the end he was thrown back quite a few meters, until he was caught by a stone wall, his body being stuck to the many cracks its impact made.

"Hmm… Impossible weaklings. The world is drowning in despair, and the only remaining pillars of light that support it are as fragile as straws... Pathetic." Sephiroth commented, as David had now managed to grab a hold of the stone wall.

"What do you mean… Ugh, drowning in despair?? What the hell do you mean? Stop speaking in riddles…" David said, barely even breathing, as he then spat a bit of blood.

"The world itself is a riddle. And from the way I see it, we're all going on a journey soon enough." Sephiroth then took a last look at the two Brigadiers before dissipating into Darkness.

"Shatter and become one with me, weaklings." His voice echoed through the hideout, as Ranger now began to move, his forced movements forcing free rubble from the wall onto the floor.

"The bitch got away…" Ranger uttered, falling on his feet. Dusting himself and removing the stone dust out of his cape, he took a look at David's condition. "How are you feeling?"

"Like being ran over by the same truck twice." David replied, before taking out the ShieldSword from his arm and setting it up on a nearby boulder.

"I wonder what that bastard meant with… The world drowning in despair."

"He's always trying to inflict despair… He will not stop until he makes Cloud his personal bitch, you know…" David clarified, to which Ranger nodded in agreement.

"Still… Something keeps telling me LA wasn't the only place affected by this." Ranger stated, before walking away. "I'm going to check out things outside!"

"Hmm… Ok man, see you in a bit." David called out, as Ranger responded with a simple hand motion.

David then looked up at the ceiling noticing more and more loose rocks falling down on his head. "Hey, what the…?"

Up in the ceiling, was that same kind of creature that had attacked Alter. Dressed in a black cloak, short in size and clinging on to the walls with its small yet sharp claws. By instinct, David drew out his ShieldSword, picking it up from the boulder, and pointing it at the mysterious being.

"Come any closer, and you're dead… That is, if you are actually alive… Then, I'll just have to kill you again!"

"YOU BASTARD!!" Ranger himself was also fighting one of those black-cloaked monsters, slashing at it with his curved blades, as the creature opened its cloak to reveal a mouth full of sharp teeth, lunging at Ranger.

Snickering, Ranger kicked it square in its teeth, breaking a few in the process, as it was sent a few meters rolling across the floor, leaving a trail of green ooze in its way. Passing the back of his hand by his forehead to wipe the sweat, he positioned himself for combat once more.

"C'mon you slippery bastard, I know you're not done for yet." Ranger yelled, and in that same second, the creature jumped up and lunged once more at the Brigadier, much to Ranger's apparent happiness.

"Now that's what I'm talking about… Free training after an ass kicking session with a silver-haired freak!" Ranger said, as he sheathed his curved blades, and in the pitch of the moment, managed to grab the creature by what seemed to be its tiny head, and with the other hand pulled out a pistol, barrel pointing straight to the mouth it had on its belly. "Now, eat metal and get the fuck out…"

And then, the gun was fired, as the sound of the gunshot echoed throughout that apocalyptic wasteland.

David seemed to be having more problems, though. The creature was taking advantage of its tight surroundings, thus being able to bounce off the walls at an incredible speed, every once in a while trying to take a bite at the Brigadier Leader, who dodged at the last second. David looked around, as the creature bounced around so fast, it seemed that there was more than just one fighting against him.

"Great, now what?" David questioned, attempting to strike the bouncing beast.

Suddenly, the creature seemed to be getting faster and faster, and since David hadn't seen it coming, he was bitten multiple times in his arms and legs.

"UGH, DAMN IT!! So, after a few minutes, you're already getting the hang of it, huh? I suppose that's why you're getting quicker… But NOT ANYMORE!!!" David yelled, as he jumped in the air and spun his ShieldSword around, making him seem just like a living tornado.

It worked, though. The creature fell for it, as the moment it neared David, it got slashed in half by the blade of his ShieldSword, spewing out a huge amount of green ooze. Frowning in disgust, David sluggishly wiped its blade in a nearby rock.

"You got to have some fun with one too, right?" The voice of Ranger was heard, as David took a glance back before seeing the dead body of another one of those beasts.

"I wouldn't call it fun… At least, not now as we are." David said, as he took some bandages off a first-aid kit he had, as he wrapped it around the many wounds in his arms and legs. He then took a look at Ranger. "You don't need these, right?"

"Yeah, mine was probably easier, I guess." Ranger replied. "In fact, being able to fight off these slippery assholes after that little encounter with Sephiroth is actually quite a feat."

"I have to agree on that, ugh!" David stated, as he tightened the last piece of bandage on his left leg.

"What now?" Ranger asked, as David could only sigh.

"Well, besides trying to figure out what these things are, we can only remain on low profile for a while. Once we set up everything, and try to get at least static on the communicators… we set out to find everyone." David stated, before looking down, as Ranger nodded.

* * *

END CHAPTER I


End file.
